Ch 2

"Congratulations ma'am, you have successfully given birth to a baby boy!"

Inside a hospital unit a lady was gently holding a newborn baby. She looked exhausted but her eyes were lively as she stared at the cute child in her arms.

The baby on the other hand, was thinking of a deep philosophical question with his tiny head. 'Where am I? Who am I? What the heck am I doing?'

He begun to recall informations and the most recent events in his memories. 'My name is Areth Augustus Claudius. King of Areth! The strongest wizard in the Areth!'

'It's confusing, but the three Areth refers to three different things. The first one was my name, the second was the name of my kingdom, and the third was the name of the planet, which I myself named after me...sigh, just what in the world was the young me thinking.'

'I lived for over three thousand years. One day I got tired and choose to give up my life by entering the gate of separation on my own will.'

Though he was working hard trying to recall more details about his previous life, his face on the surface looked innocent. His eyes were tightly closed and was simply sucking milk on instinct.

"Oh, oh! Sarah, our son looks so cute!"

The former king Areth, was interrupted in musing by this voice, spoke in a strangely familiar language.

'Right, this...this is english right? Am I finally back on Earth?'

Once he realized this, relief settled on his body and he let himself fall asleep.

----

It has been a few days and Areth has finally confirmed that this was Earth, the same one on his distant memories. Also in this life, whether a coincidence or under the guidance of some supreme being, his name was still Areth.

This was a good news for him as he wouldn't need to get use to an unfamiliar name.

At this moment he was watching the television from his crib, leisurely drinking a bottle of milk and sitting like a boss. His mother Sarah was preparing breakfast in the kitchen, and she would probably be creeped out if she saw him like this.

The television was playing some movie when a breaking news suddenly interrupted his leisure.

"Monster Horde Drowns City D!"

The title of the news was quite eye catching to him. The newscaster looked serious and solemn as he narrated the disaster. "Thankfully, we have a party of S-rank Hunters nearby on vacation and the disaster was mitigated." The reporter concluded and there was a short clip showing on the large screen behind him, featuring a monster being sliced by an edgy swordsman.

"Pfft!" Areth was shocked that he spit out milk from his nose. He was already a week old in this world so the blurry memories in his head started clearing up as he came into contact with familiar things from the modern world. He was quite certain that there were no monsters on Earth before he reincarnated in his second life! 'Are they playing a prank!?'

However, he heard hurried footstep from the kitchen and he saw his mother with a frown on his face seriously listening at the news. "City D, it's quite near from our city, E." He heard her murmur. "Fortunately, there are few rifts in this city."

She then looked at him who was gawking at her and consoled. "Don't worry, your papa is very strong! He will protect us!"

After the news was over, his mother breastfed him once more before heading back to the kitchen.

'Just what the heck?'

After that incident, Areth craved for information more than ever. He constantly listens to the news and would secretly browse either books or newspapers in the room.

One month later, Areth who have grown slightly, suddenly opened his eyes in the middle of the night. It was a time where everyone else was sleeping. Usually, he would wake up for a shameful reason, but it was different this time.

'I retired as a Mage but I really have no choice this time. I have to learn more about this world!'

One month was enough to for him to fortify his body and prepare for what he will be doing next.

His iris glowed in the color of gold, strands of light gathered in the center of his brows from all over his body, and congealed to a luminous ball. The luminous ball floated up and took the form of an old man.

This was his usual soul form. He looked at his current form and his physical body. He felt that it was quite creepy and changed his soul form to that of a boy.

His soul flew out from the roof and headed towards the night sky. There were numerous stars shining from above, and below was the bustling city.

Areth roamed around and discovered many things about his concern; regarding monsters and hunters, as well as the so called rifts. He even found the Hunters Guild headquarters and directly gathered information from the staffs by listening to conversions.

He followed hunters taking in missions and saw them off as they enter a rift. Even though it was just after midnight, many hunters were still active, as though they didn't even need to sleep.

Now he realized that he was not on the Earth where he lived his first life. It was another version of Earth, with monsters and super powered individuals called hunters.

Satisfied with his investigations today, the astral projection was ended and his consciousness returned to his body.

His eyelids were now heavy, he decided to think about the implications later and let himself fall into dreamland.

'Hah, what's weak body.'

Later on the next day, Areth resumed his tour around the world with astral projection. This time he entered a rift secretly along with a party of hunters.

As soon a he went past the massive fissure in space, it felt like he entered another world. The skies were bleak and the land was barren.

Around the entry fissure were barricades and military personnel vigilantly guarding against the monsters. They heartily welcomed the hunters and allowed them to explore further.

Areth flew up to the sky and saw that aside from the land demarcated by the military, the land was swarming with creatures, both from the land and the skies.

He also saw several hunters scattered in groups, either camping or fending of some monsters or cleaning a carcass. He even saw a party fighting on the sky.

'So this is the life of hunters.'

A giant winged beast went past his astral projection, heading to the military base. As soon as it crossed the boundary, a bright light flashed from the base and pierced the winged beast. They quickly gathered around the carcass and carried it in the base.

'Let's see how they fight.' Areth approached a party of hunters struggling against a pack of creatures that seems to be like a combination of hound and goat.

"Fireball!"

"Windblade!"

"Heal!"

There were two girls in the center of the formation, one casting offensive spells and the other for support. The rest of the party engaged in exciting melee.

"Common my cash! Shield bash! Shield bash! Triple shield bash! Oooh!"

The muscular guy in sleek black armor yelled fiercely as he sent the creatures flying one after another.

"Stop yelling damn it! You think you're a Mage?"

Areth who was watching from the sky had black lines of his face. He directly ended his astral projection there.

"Huff, huff." In his crib, Areth hurriedly inspected his mind to see if his mind was poisoned. The scene where they were yelling their ultimate moves reminded him of his traumatic past. The only consolation was that no one who heard his ultimate move's name was alive.